Many regions require children defined by age, weight, and/or height to use a specific government-approved child safety seat, which mount on existing automobile seats, and are utilized to secure children during automobile travel. Generally, most regions require the use of safety seats for younger children that are secured to the car by way of existing seat belts or another system, and include separate five-point harnesses that secure the younger child to the safety seat. Typically, such safety seats include rear-facing infant seats for newborn babies and children up to approximately 2 years or 20 pounds, and front-facing child safety seats from age 2 to approximately age 4 or 40 lbs. Most regions also require the use of a booster-type safety seat for children between ages 5 and 10 or 40 to 100 lbs that allow the use of an automobile's existing lap/shoulder seat belt system to secure a child, but serve to elevate the child so the shoulder belt rests appropriately on the shoulder blade and does not ride up the child's neck, and raises the child's hips so that the lap belt rests securely across and remain on the large bones instead of resting across the soft tissue of the abdomen. Booster seats include high-back, belt-positioning booster seats, low-back booster seats and no-back booster seats. High-back, belt-positioning booster seats, which are often required for younger/smaller children, and include both a base (seat) that provides the required child elevation, and a back portion that is secured to the base and includes slots or grooves along the side edges to properly position the shoulder belt, and often includes head support structures and padding hat provide improved protection in side-impact collisions. When a child has grown such that the booster's shoulder belt position feature is no longer needed (e.g., ages 5 or 6 and up), a low-back or no-back booster seat can be used.
Combination safety/booster seats are configured to serve both as child safety seats and booster-type seats by way of providing both a five-point harness system and belt-positioning structures, thereby facilitating conversion from a front-facing child safety seat to booster seat by way of removing the seat's five-point harness system. By providing a compliant safety seat platform for both younger and older children, combination safety/booster seats, provide an economical choice for parents wishing to avoid to expense of purchasing separate child safety and booster seats as their child grows.
Currently there are two general classes of combination safety/booster seats: 2-in-1-type combination seats and 3-in-1-type combination seats. Both 2-in-1-type and 3-in-1-type safety/booster combination seats includes both structures for supporting the five-point harness system and belt-positioning structures that facilitate conversion to a booster seat, e.g., when a child reaches 40 lbs. However, 2-in-1-type combination seats typically comprise a single-piece shell (e.g., an integral molded structure or permanently connected assembly including both back and base portions) that limits the conversion process from the child safety seat configuration to a high-back belt-positioning booster seat configuration. In contrast, 3-in-1-type combination seats include a two-piece seat assembly (i.e., detachable back and base structures) that facilitates conversion from the child safety seat configuration to the high-back belt-positioning booster seat configuration, and facilitates further configuration from the high-back belt-positioning booster seat to a low-back/no-back booster seat configuration by way of removing the back structure from the base structure, e.g., when a child reaches a suitable age and size.
Although both 2-in-1-type and 3-in-1-type combination seats provide cost advantages over separate child safety and booster seats, 3-in-1-type seats combination arguably have cost and/or safety advantages over 2-in-1-type combination seats. That is, a problem with 2-in-1-type combination seats is that, in order to properly support and protect children up to 100 lbs, the integral back and base portions must be substantially larger than those otherwise required for children transitioning from infant to child safety seats, which increases material costs. Moreover, various adjustment mechanisms must be provided for parents to properly secure their smaller child in the larger seat frame, further increasing manufacturing costs and potentially decreasing child safety by way of improper adjustment. In contrast, because 3-in-1-type combination seats convert to low-back/no-back booster seats by way of detaching the back structure from the base structure, the overall size of 3-in-1-type combination seats can be made smaller than that of 2-in-1-type combination seats, both reducing manufacturing costs and arguably increasing the safety of smaller children. That is, the child grows too large for the smaller seat back structure, then the child is ready to transition to a low-back/no-back booster, and the seat back structure is simply removed.
Various attachment mechanisms have been developed for detachably securing the back structure to the base structure in conventional 3-in-1-type combination seats. U.S. Published Application 2012/0292963 entitled “Seat Adjustment Mechanism” teaches an arrangement in which the back portion is attached to the base structure by way of L-shaped beams that attach at their lower end to rotatable connectors provided on the base structure, and by way of locks that engage a lock bar provided on the base structure, whereby detachment of back portion from the base structure requires a parent to manipulate tabs while rotating the back portion forward and pulling the back portion upward. While this mechanism provides secure connection of the back portion to the base structure, the mechanism significantly increases manufacturing costs and can be difficult to use. A second “simple hinge” approach involves forming a seat assembly for a 3-in-1-type combination seat in which an integrally molded plastic back structure attaches to an integrally molded plastic base structure by way of a hinge-type connection mechanism formed by corresponding integrally molded plastic structures, for example, integrally molded hook-like engagement structures disposed on a lower edge of the back structure, and corresponding integrally molded socket structures disposed on a back edge of the base structure. In this case, the hook-like engagement structures are able to enter and engage rods disposed in the socket structures when the back structure is oriented in an inclined (leaned-back) position relative to the base structure, and become securely rotatably locked inside the socket structures when the back structure is subsequently rotated upward. Further forward rotation of the back structure (i.e., beyond approximately) 90° is prevented by contact between side flanges of the back structure against the armrest/belt-guide protrusions formed on the base structure. Although this second approach provides a substantially less expensive and more intuitive mechanism, a problem with this arrangement is that the back structure can pivot backward relative to the base structure during installation, which may result in undesirable (or potentially dangerous) disengagement of one or both hook-like engagement structures from their corresponding sockets.
Character-based child safety seats are child safety seats that include integral depictions of popular cartoon characters, and are favored by some parents because the character image is believed to entice young children to willingly enter and remain seated within their safety seat. However, a child's fondness for the depicted character typically tends to wane as a child reaches age 5 or 6, which may cause the child to resist entering the character-based seat. Thus, this issue is particularly acute when character-based images are incorporated into 2-in-1-type and 3-in-1-type combination seats because such seats are intended to last until the child is age 9 or 10, and children of this age may entirely refuse to utilize a booster seat that retains any indicia pertaining to the character.
What is needed is a low-cost 3-in-1-type combination/booster seat assembly that avoids the problems associated with conventional approaches. Specifically, what is needed is a low-cost 3-in-1-type combination safety/booster seat that remains coherent during installation, and facilitates easy conversion from a character-based combination/high-back-booster seat to a generic (non-character) low-back/no-back booster seat.